How Can Christians Keep Passover Today?

Keeping Passover is a biblical Christian practice, even among the first Christians and their earliest successors. How can Christians keep Passover today?

1. Remembering God’s Salvation

God instituted Passover as a remembrance of how he saved the Israelites from slavery to the Egyptians (cf. Exod. 12:14, 17). However, like every other biblical holiday, Passover was meant to point us to something greater: Jesus Christ (Col. 2:16–17).

Ultimately, the Passover Season is a time for us to remember how God saves us from slavery to sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (John 8:34–36; Rom. 6:6, 15–23).

2. Sharing a Passover Meal in Remembrance of Jesus

Sharing a Passover meal is so essential to Passover-keeping that it is equivalent to “keeping Passover” (Matt. 26:18 cf. Exod. 12:48).

During the Passover Evening before his death, Jesus shared a Passover meal with his disciples (Luke 22:1, 7–8, 15). During this “Last Supper” Passover meal, Jesus told his disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19) In obedience to Jesus, the first Christians continued to keep Passover in remembrance of him (1 Cor. 11:23–25).

By sharing a Passover meal, Christians share in and proclaim the death, resurrection, and coming again of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 10:16; 11:26).

3. Abstaining from Leavened Foods

In the biblical law, it is written that during Passover Evening and the next seven days, we should not eat leavened foods, and keep our dwelling spaces clear of leaven and leavened foods (Exod. 12:15, 18–20; Lev. 23:6; Num. 28:17; Deut. 16:4, 8).

More importantly, this biblical practice of abstaining from leavened foods during the Passover Season reminds us that we should keep our lives clean from sin because Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed to cleanse us from our sins (1 Cor. 5:6–8; John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:19).

4. Ceasing from Work

In the biblical law, it is written that we should cease from work and hold a holy assembly on the first and seventh days after Passover Evening (Lev. 23:7–8; Num. 28:18, 25).

Ceasing from work reminds us that the only way that we can receive salvation from God is to cease from our work of trying to earn our salvation and rest on Jesus Christ alone to save us. Indeed, we did not do anything to deserve our salvation. Rather, we were saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and this was not at all a result of our works (Eph. 2:8–9).

Practically, ceasing from work for two days gives us the time to pause and ponder on the meaning and the message of Passover!